1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print controller, a print control method and a computer program, and more specifically to a print controller, a print control method and a computer program for controlling printing of a business form by a print device.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in outputting a business form by sending form data from a host device such as a personal computer to a printer, a user program utilizing a special library is executed in the host device. As shown in FIG. 4, the special library generates a final output form by loading data included in a data file into a predetermined place (field) of a form file (business form template) which indicates a layout of the business form. In the present specification, a diagram indicating the field into which data is loaded is referred to as a field diagram, and the data file loaded therein is referred to as field data.
A print setup for a printer is performed by a user through a user interface (UI) which is provided by the user program mentioned above, or performed by utilizing a specific print environment file which is previously saved.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-277640, a business form print controller for controlling a print setup for each print job is also disclosed.
In the case of the business form printing mentioned above, variable length data may be loaded into a field defined in a record. In the example shown in FIG. 4, although each billing data item corresponds to a unit of the record, variable length table data may be loaded into the field diagram, and therefore the number of billing sheets changes depending on its length.
In the conventional print setup method, however, only the same print setup can be performed for the printing of all the records, and if a plurality of records are printed, all of the records are output according to the same print setup. Therefore, printed matter printed in such a manner has had a problem in that it is difficult to recognize a grouping (separation) for each record included therein.